The Heart: The Key to Everything In the Christian Life

By Tim Rowe

We need to recover a truth that has been all but lost in modern-day Christianity. It has been buried for too long, and it is too valuable to be forgotten. This life-changing truth is that the heart is the key to everything in the Christian life. The heart is the wellspring of all our actions, emotions, motives, and character. Everything we are, everything we say, and everything we do flows directly from the heart. In The Heart—The Key to Everything in the Christian Life, believers will discover how the heart is central to spiritual growth and how it will help us better reflect the image of Christ in a fallen world. The heart is the key to our service and obedience to the Father. The heart is the key to the purity and depth of our worship, praise, and love of God. It is time the Christian church once again teaches a proper understanding of the heart so that we can fully embrace and manifest the life of Christ within us.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu Publishing Services
• Release date: Mar 11, 2016
• ISBN: 9781483444673

Tim Rowe

Tim Rowe is the author of Cyberia, the Tales from the Obsidian Tower short story collection, and the forthcoming Beyond the Deep Blue Sky. He typically writes story driven literature in the sci-fi, horror or dark romance genres, often underpinned by a philosophical premise.

Book preview

The

Heart

The Key

to Everything

in the

Christian Life

Tim Rowe

Copyright © 2016 Tim Rowe.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted by any means—whether auditory, graphic, mechanical, or electronic—without written permission of both publisher and author, except in the case of brief excerpts used in critical articles and reviews. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this work is illegal and is punishable by law.

ISBN: 978-1-4834-4792-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4834-4791-9 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4834-4467-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016900441

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Lulu Publishing Services rev. date: 03/03/2016

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1 The Key to the Christian Life

Chapter 2 Guarding the Heart: The Christian’s Sacred Duty

Chapter 3 Introduction to the Three Gateways to the Heart

Chapter 4 The Eyes: The First Gateway to the Heart

Chapter 5 The Ears: The Second Gateway to the Heart

Chapter 6 The Prince of the Power of the Air: The Spiritual Battle for Your Ears

Chapter 7 The Ears: Music’s Enormous Impact on the Heart

Chapter 8 The Thoughts: The Third Gateway to the Heart

Chapter 9 The Parable of the Sower and the Seed: The Four Conditions of the Heart

Chapter 10 The First Soil of the Heart: The Great Robbery

Chapter 11 The Second Soil of the Heart: Rocks, Scorching, and Withering

Chapter 12 The Third Soil of the Heart: The Choking Weeds—Five Thorns to Avoid

Chapter 13 The Fourth Soil of the Heart: The Precious Good, Tilled, and Fruitful Soil

Chapter 14 Idols of the Heart

Chapter 15 God’s Great Plea to the Heart: Do Not Forget Me!

Endnotes

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from:

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV) © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

Other Scripture quotations are from:

American Standard Version of the Holy Bible (ASV), first published 1901. Public Domain.

Amplified Bible (AMP) Copyright © 2015 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, CA 90631. All rights reserved.

Amplified Bible, Classic Edition (AMPC) Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved.

Common English Bible (CEB) Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible.

Contemporary English Version (CEV), Copyright © 1995 by American Bible Society. Used by permission.

Emphasized Bible by Joseph Bryant Rotherham. Copyright 1994 by Kregel Publications, a division of Kregel, Inc.

God’s Word Translation (GW), Copyright © 1995 by God’s Word to the Nations. Used by permission of Baker Publishing Group.

Good News Translation (GNT), Copyright © 1976, by American Bible Society.

Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSV), Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville Tennessee. All rights reserved.

Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.®

Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved worldwide.

J. B. Phillips (PHILLIPS), The New Testament in Modern English, by J. B. Philips. Copyright © 1960, 1972 J. B. Phillips. Administered by The Archbishops’ Council of the Church of England. Used by Permission.

King James Bible, Cambridge Edition (KJB), published in 1873. Public Domain.

New American Standard Bible (NASB) Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1972, 1975, 1977, 1995 by the Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

New Century Version (NCV) The Holy Bible, New Century Version® Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

New International Reader’s Version (NIRV), Copyright © 1995, 1996, 1998, 2014 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing. All rights reserved worldwide.

New Living Translation (NLT), Copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

New Revised Standard Version Bible (NRSV) Copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

New Testament in Modern Speech, by Robert Francis Weymouth, Copyright © 1978 by Kregel Publications.

Revised English Version (REV), Copyright © 2014 by Spirit and Truth International.

Revised Standard Version of the Bible (RSV), Copyright © 1946, 1952, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The Bible in Basic English (BBE), by Samuel Henry Hooke, 1965 by Cambridge Publishing, without copyright notice.

The Companion Bible, by E. W. Bullinger. Copyright © 1990 by Kregel Publishing.

The Darby Bible (DARBY), first published in 1890. Public Domain.

The Holy Bible, Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition, Douai, France, translated from the Latin Vulgate. Public Domain.

The Holy Bible, King James Version (KJV). Public Domain.

The Holy Bible, New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The Holy Bible: A Translation from the Latin Vulgate in the Light of the Hebrew and Greek Originals and the New Testament in the Translation of Monsignor Ronald Knox. Copyright © 1954 by Sheed and Ward, Inc. New York.

The Message by Eugene H. Peterson (MSG) Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

The New English Bible (NEB) Copyright © 1961, 1970 by Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press.

The New Jerusalem Bible (NJB), Copyright © 1966, 1967, 1968 by Darton, Longman & Todd, Ltd and Doubleday and Co., Inc.

The New Testament: An Expanded Translation by Kenneth S. Wuest. Copyright © 1961 by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel on the Pentateuch with Fragments of the Jerusalem Targum: from the Chaldee (JTE), by J.W. Etheridge, M.A., Copyright © 1865 Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, and Green.

The Voice Bible © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society. All rights reserved.

World English Bible (WEB), trademark of eBible.org.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

T here are many to thank in the writing of this book for their contributions. First I want to thank my loving Heavenly Father who inspired and encouraged me to write the magnificent truths of His Word as they pertain to the heart, and to my Lord Jesus who gave his life so that my heart might be rescued from the bondage of sin and purified by his precious blood.

To Jexy, for being my wife, my best friend, my faithful supporter, my co-laborer in ministry, a wonderful mother to Isaiah, and for helping with formatting, editing and the presentation of the book. You are God’s gift to me and I am thankful for your grace, love and patience throughout this process.

To my son Isaiah, who is such a joy and blessing from God. Although just a toddler now, my prayer as he gets older is that he will treasure the truths in this book and hide them in his heart, so that his life will be a reflection of Christ and his heart will be pure from all the corruption that there is in the world.

To Vic, for being a great friend who always brings me back to the Word and for discussing truths of Scripture as iron sharpens iron. You are an inspiration in your love and concern for others and your daily witnessing to bring many others into the family of God.

To Eric Ludy, who has inspired and motivated me through his books, ministry and friendship. Your knowledge of Scripture and teaching have deepened my understanding of the heart. Thanks for encouraging me to write and sharing your editor with me.

I want to thank David Webb, for taking time out of his incredibly busy schedule to edit many chapters of the book and for his insight, suggestions and help in making the message more clear and impactful. I want to also thank Kathy Ide, for her help in editing and for her helpful advice.

I want to thank so many that have been excited for this book to be published and have exhorted me to finish it. Your hunger for the truth has greatly motivated me and given me a passion to write.

I want to thank Lulu Publishing, for all their help in the publishing of this book and for their helpful suggestions and input.

INTRODUCTION

I am writing to you in hopes of recovering a truth that has been all but lost in modern-day Christianity. This truth has been buried for too long, and it is time to recover this treasure once again. It’s time to bring this truth to the forefront of our faith, as it is too valuable to be ignored and too important to be cast aside.

This life-changing truth is that the heart is the key to everything in the Christian life. The heart is the wellspring of all our actions, our emotions, our motives, and our character. Everything we say, everything we do, and everything we are flows directly from the heart.

The heart is the key to our spiritual growth, to our reflecting the image of Christ in a fallen world. The heart is the key to our service and obedience to the Father. The heart is the key to the purity and depth of our worship, praise, and love of God.

We have ignored this truth for too long, and as a result we have allowed our hearts to fall into spiritual bankruptcy. Our hearts have become overgrown with the weeds of this world, becoming a spiritual wasteland of hard, scorched soil and withering fruit. Our neglect of the heart has caused our witness for Christ to shatter into pieces and have no impact in this world. Our spiritual lives will never grow, mature, and become rooted, strong and powerful in Christ, if we play the fool with our hearts.

The Heart is the Key to Spiritual Transformation

Indeed, the heart is the key to changing our lives. It is the key to Christian transformation. Wes Hodges, in his book The Battle Inside: Spiritual Transformation from the Inside Out, says:

Change the heart, Jesus says, and everything else will change along with it. We develop character, personality, relationships, spirituality, stability, and all action from the heart. If we do not know, understand, and challenge our hearts, we do not have the foundation to make real and significant changes in our lives.¹

It is time the Christian church once again teaches a proper understanding of the heart so that we can fully embrace and manifest the life of Christ within us. We must cease to rob God of the pleasure of using our lives as an instrument for His glory by failing to take care of our hearts. The message that should be sounding from every pulpit in our land is What is the condition of your heart?

In Whatever Happened to the Power of God? Michael L. Brown boldly declares:

Enough with our emphasis on talents and abilities. Enough with our emphasis on anointing and gifts. There is one thing that really matters for the servant of God. What is the condition of his heart? ²

A Christian can be born again yet stymie the great work of the gospel because he has become careless about the condition of his heart. Jesus brought to light this serious problem of his day when He said of the Pharisees, These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. (Matthew 15:8). On the surface the Pharisees looked so holy, pious, and sincere, but their spiritual life was counterfeit, a masquerade, because their hearts were a million miles away from God. They were whitewashed sepulchers who looked beautiful on the outside, but inside their hearts were mere tombs full of rotting, dead bones.

Jesus cried out to His followers and said Listen and understand! and He taught them this great truth that what comes out of the heart is what defiles a person, as the heart is the source of everything a person says and does (Matthew 15:10–20). Yet we have forgotten this priceless truth taught by our Lord and Savior. Our practical Christianity has become defiled and impure because we fail to keep and guard our hearts from becoming polluted by sin and the momentary pleasures of this world. God is the great searcher of the hearts, and He is vitally concerned with this one important question for every Christian: What is the condition of your heart?

K. P. Yohannan, in Destined to Soar, writes Man measures the quality and usefulness of a person by his education, ability and expertise. Yet God determines a person’s true value by the condition of his or her heart: ‘Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart’ (1 Samuel 16:7).³

The Lord wants your heart. Not just a piece or sliver of it, but all of it. God is constantly imploring you, My son, my daughter, my child. Give me your heart! God wants to write His story on the tablet of your heart.

Your spiritual enemy, the devil, is also after your heart. Everything in the kingdom of darkness is designed with this purpose in mind, which is to defile the human heart. Whoever controls the heart, controls the person, for a person’s life flows from the heart. One of the magnificent workings of the gospel of Jesus Christ is the sanctification and purification of the heart. Christian, your heart is not to remain stagnant in sin as a redeemed individual. God is calling you to spiritual growth. He is calling you to transformation. He is calling you to purity. And this is all dependent on the condition of your heart. The great call of God to your heart is to be conformed and molded into the image of Christ, so that when people see you they see a beautiful reflection of Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18). The cry of your heart should be For me, to live is Christ! For me, to speak is Christ! For me, to love is Christ!

Has anyone mistaken your heart for Jesus Christ lately? The world can only see Christ in your life, your words, and your actions through a pure and sanctified heart. The gospel must be preached and lived out of a pure heart, or we will dishonor the name of our Lord and corrupt our witness for Christ. God desires that our hearts reflect the majesty and glory of God shining forth in brilliant light and revealing the beautiful wonders of the Son. Therefore, we must keep our hearts clean and free from the corrupting influences and images of this wicked age.

Samuel Chadwick in The Call to Christian Perfection says:

The essential principle of all moral evil is alienation of the heart from God … There is no substitute for a clean heart. Till this is accomplished, nothing is done; when this is done all things become possible … The cleansing of the springs of thoughts and desires, motives and will … rectify the entire character, transform the whole life, and reconstruct all its relationships. This is the work of the gospel.⁴

There’s a direct correlation between the condition of our hearts and the effectiveness of the work of the gospel. If our hearts are full of bitterness, shame, unforgiveness, resentment, anger, jealously, or pride, then how can we be effective laborers for God and ambassadors for Christ? How can the gospel flow through our hearts to others? Who among our neighbors would want to become a Christian if all they see is that kind of garbage spewing forth from our hearts? We may have the coolest worship services, the most amazing speakers, the most stunning church architecture, and the slickest presentations, but if we have not taken care of our hearts, it is all in vain. Haven’t we heard too often that Christians are a bunch of hypocrites who preach one thing but live another?

Dear friend, please understand! This is a heart issue! We have a heart condition! We have allowed spiritual heart disease to creep into the church! We have become so concerned with the external that we have neglected the internal.

In For God’s Sake, Grow Up! David Ravenhill writes:

God does intend for His people to reign in life … But before God will allow his people to reign externally, he first requires them to rule internally. The internal becomes the key to the external. Christ first seeks to establish his kingdom within us before he can establish his kingdom through us.⁵

It is Time for a Spiritual Checkup of Our Hearts

You surely remember the last time you visited a doctor’s office for a physical examination, but how long has it been since you have had a spiritual examination of your heart? When is the last time you made an appointment with the Great Physician to check your spiritual condition? The apostle Paul declares, Examine and test and evaluate your own selves to see whether you are holding to your faith and showing the proper fruits of it. Test and prove yourselves (2 Corinthians 13:5, AMP). We must submit to regular spiritual checkups where we examine, test, and evaluate our hearts to see if we are holding to our faith and exhibiting the fruits of the Holy Spirit.

If we want to remain in top spiritual condition to do the work of our Lord, we cannot neglect the condition of our hearts. Have the spiritual arteries of your heart become hardened? Can you identify a pattern of rebellion where you are turning away from God in any area of your life? Is your heart choked with what Moses described as a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit (Deuteronomy 29:18, ESV)? If so, you will need to come to the Great Physician with utmost humility, fully open your heart to Him on His operating table, and allow Him to burn away the chaff and circumcise the fleshly strongholds of sin.

Examine me, God! Look at my heart! Put me to the test! Know my anxious thoughts! Look to see if there is any idolatrous way in me, then lead me on the eternal path! (Psalm 139:23–24, CEB)

We must truly repent of unexamined sin so that we do not hinder or obstruct the awesome work of God in the innermost parts of our being. We must prepare our hearts for the way of the Lord, making every mountain of pride low, every crooked path of sin straight, and every rough place of stubbornness smooth. Only in this way can we let the whole world see the glory of God pouring forth from our hearts like rivers of living water (John 7:38).

The great English clergyman John Flavel, in His wonderful work Keeping the Heart, wrote, "The greatest difficulty in conversion, is to win the heart to God; and the greatest difficulty after conversion, is to keep the heart with God … The keeping and right managing of the heart in every condition, is one great business of a Christian’s life (emphasis mine)."⁶

We must diligently keep, guard, and rightly manage our hearts daily, for this is the great business of a Christian’s life that cannot be neglected. Yet many of us have allowed our hearts to become sickened from the toxic pollution of this world. Such hearts have become a desolate wilderness, barren of spiritual fruit. Thus we have allowed our hearts to bear the image of another, rather than the glorious image of Almighty God.

In Search of the Perfect Heart

It is time to reverse this tragedy of the heart in the Christian home and the Christian church. Our hearts must become perfect before the Lord. Do you know that God’s eyes are searching throughout the entire earth, peering into every home, every church, and every person for one thing? Do you know what it is the Creator of the heavens and earth is leaving no stone unturned to find?

For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. (2 Chronicles 16:9, KJV)

The New American Standard Bible puts it this way: For the eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His.

God yearns for each of us to have a perfect heart. The word translated perfect from the Hebrew means complete, whole, full and completely finishing or perfecting a work. It describes a heart wholly true to God and completely undivided in its allegiance. It is a heart that utterly trusts and leans on Him in every circumstance and does not depend or put its confidence in the strength of another. It is a heart that empties itself of every ounce of self-pride, self-exultance, and self-reliance, and is totally consumed by God. We’re talking about a heart that gives all of itself to God without reservation. We’re talking about perfectly trusting in the delivering power of God, for it is this perfect confidence that allows God to act on our behalf.

A perfect heart holds nothing back from God. It lays itself on God’s altar as a living sacrifice. It is a heart shaped, molded, and prepared by God to accomplish His mighty purposes upon the earth. Such a heart will enjoy intimate communion, fellowship, and companionship with the living God and is prepared to do His work and to fulfill its calling to manifest God’s compassion and love in the world. But I warn you: This is a heart that is 100 percent God’s, with no strings attached. It’s always at God’s disposal, ready to serve Him in love wherever He beckons. It is a heart that is so passionately rooted in God and His Holy Word that sin has no power over it, and no unholy desire or craving has any control over it.

Only such a heart will allow God to completely finish His work within, bringing us to the point where the heart is completely conformed to the image of Christ. Make your heart His instrument, and as the greatest spiritual virtuoso of all the heavens and earth, God will create the most beautiful masterpiece of composition that lives and breathes Christ in every note and sound. The perfect heart will sound out His song to all generations.

God implants the seeds of a perfect heart within our new nature when we are born again in Christ, but we must allow Him to finish His perfect work and, as a fellow laborer with Christ, work with Him to ensure that our hearts begin to grow and blossom toward perfection. This book will bring to light just how we are to work together with God in the journey toward a perfect heart.

Scripture assures us it is possible to walk before the Lord with a perfect heart. King David said, I will behave wisely in a perfect way … I will walk within my house with a perfect heart (Psalm 101:2, NKJV). David Wilkerson writes in Hungry for More of Jesus:

To come to grips with the idea of perfection, we must first understand that perfection does not mean a sinless, flawless existence … it means completeness, maturity. Hebrew and Greek meanings of perfection include uprightness, having neither spot nor blemish, being totally obedient. … A perfect heart is a responsive heart, one that answers quickly and totally all the Lord’s wooings, whisperings, and warnings … The perfect heart wants the Holy Spirit to come and search out the innermost man, to shine into all the hidden parts-to investigate, expose and dig out all that is unlike Christ … The perfect heart yearns for more than security or a covering for sin. It seeks to be in God’s presence always.⁷

The perfect heart is fiercely loyal to God, regardless of circumstance, condition, or enticement. The perfect heart is obedient to God without hesitation or compromise. The perfect heart loves God with every fiber of its being and shuns the lure of earthly treasure. It stakes its very life on the promise of God’s faithfulness. A perfect heart is unadulterated in its humility before the Lord. It is a meek heart that is teachable, coachable, and fully tuned to the voice of God. The perfect heart lives and breathes in His presence, aching with a burning passion for communion and intimacy with the Father. The perfect heart is the heart of Jesus. Oh, that the Lord will take our weak and frail hearts and form them into perfect hearts that joyfully rest and abide in Him always!

Now is the time for a purifying restoration of our hearts—a revival of the heart, if you will. If we will empty ourselves of pride, self-righteousness, and self-exaltation and instead allow our hearts to become rooted in God and His Word, the church will become unstoppable, immovable, and unshakeable as we move to fulfill His holy calling on this earth.

We must once again have the shepherd heart of David, the lion heart of Jesus, the meek heart of Moses, the tender heart of Hezekiah, the perfect heart of Abraham, the wise heart of Solomon, the willing heart of Ruth, the listening heart of Samuel, the stirred heart of Jeremiah, the fiery heart of Elijah, the courageous heart of Joshua, the sacred heart of Ezekiel, the obedient heart of Noah, the fellowship heart of Enoch, the devoted heart of Peter, and the branded heart of Paul.

May your journey through this book allow Jesus Christ, the Bright and Morning Star, to arise and shine forth brilliantly in your heart so that, together, we can turn the world upside down again (Acts 17:6) by the testimony, words, actions, motives and emotions that flow from our hearts.

Chapter 1

The Key to the Christian Life

E very day you check the condition of something or someone in your life. You check the condition of your car, your children, your home, your health, and your relationships. You may check the status of your computer, your to-do list, and maybe your bank account. You even check the weather conditions before going outdoors. You’re in the habit of checking these things because you think it’s important to your daily routine and necessary for the effective management of your life and responsibilities.

But how often do you check the condition of your heart? Do you even understand what the heart is? And just how on earth can you check its condition?

The fact is the heart is the key to everything in your life! Your family, your job, your relationships, and your self-image all depend on the condition of your heart. The quality of your service and witness for Christ comes down to the condition of your heart. Your peace, your strength, your joy, your love, your obedience, and your faith are all determined by the condition of your heart. Even your future rewards in the kingdom of God and your responsibilities in His kingdom throughout all eternity will be determined by the motives and condition of your heart here and now.

Too often as Christians, we cannot understand why our lives aren’t working and why we’re not as fruitful and productive for God as we want to be. Sometimes our spiritual growth seems weak or stunted and going nowhere. We become frustrated with our Christian walk, and we often just want to quit. Some even turn their backs on faith because it seems that Christianity is not what it claims to be or—at least—is ineffective for dealing with the struggles they face in life. What we fail to see is that the problem lies with the condition of our hearts.

Thousands of books, television shows, workshops, and seminars try to deal directly or indirectly with issues of the heart, but without a biblical or godly perspective. We have heart-shaped holidays, talk shows about matters of the heart, recipes for winning someone’s heart, and even flashy five-step formulas for getting over a broken heart. But where is God in all this? Shouldn’t the maker of the human heart have a say in how the heart best functions?

You need to understand what constitutes a healthy heart, according to the Bible, before you can take real, lasting steps toward building it up and keeping it in top condition. But you must also realize that you have an Enemy who wants to take your heart captive. He wants to weigh it down with oppression, bondage, impurities, bitterness, hatred, envy, and strife so that it is weak and sickly throughout your life.

There is an intense spiritual battle taking place with your heart as the prize. This battle is to determine whether your heart will be devoted to God or to the things of this world. Be assured that the Devil wants to crush the very life from your heart, to snuff out any hint of light that might reflect the image of our Lord. And he will do anything to convince you that your heart is of no real consequence and that your devotion can make no difference in the grand scheme of things.

But as John Eldredge writes in Waking the Dead: The Glory of a Heart Fully Alive, your heart does matter to God.

God intends we treat our hearts as the treasures of the kingdom, ransomed at a tremendous cost, as if they do really matter, and matter deeply.⁸

Of course, the Enemy will tell you this is foolish. There are so many more important things to think about, he whispers. You can always get to it later. Remember the Devil fears you. He fears the idea of your heart becoming alive, full, and free. This is why caring for your heart is not only an act of obedience and love and faith but it is also an act of war. Caring for your heart is the first blow to the Enemy’s schemes.

Who Will Sit on the Throne of Your Heart?

It is a radical act of faith to guard your heart as the sacred place of communion and fellowship with our Lord. Your heart is a treasure that should be given fully to Him, for only in God your heart will find its home. God meant for your heart to be alive with His presence, a place where He is enthroned as its rightful ruler. The whole work of redemption is to pay the penalty for sin and bring hearts back into right and eternal relationship with our heavenly Father. Your heart is meant to be, like the Holy of Holies in the temple in the Old Testament, a place where God is vibrantly alive and present, where He lives and is enjoyed and is intimately experienced.

In his book, Guard Your Heart, Ron Luce explains.

Do you realize that of all the religions in the world, Christianity is the only belief system where God is not just a bunch of rules, but He is asking for our hearts? In no other religion does the god ask for the heart. Buddha doesn’t ask for it. Allah doesn’t ask for it. Confucius doesn’t ask for it, and the Hindu gods don’t ask for it. All other religions are lists of things to do, supposedly to please their gods, but the Creator, the only true God, along with His Son Jesus Christ, asks for our hearts because He created our hearts to be occupied by Him … No other religion talks about a heart that needs to be changed or even could be changed. Jesus is the only One who promises the miracle of a new heart, and the only One who can deliver it.⁹

Yet sadly for so many Christians, God occupies very little of their hearts. And if He is found there, it is only as a visitor given temporary lodgings until something or someone more important comes along. This is why the hearts of so many of us are spiritually anemic, lacking in the vibrancy and life of God Almighty. We have failed to consistently experience God living in our hearts and have never known Him beyond mere acquaintance. God is more like a distant relative we see a few times a year, someone to whom we offer a guest room or an inflatable mattress on the living room floor, but there’s no intimate, cherished, close relationship with One deeply residing within the heart.

Worse, God has been tossed from the throne of these hearts and something else has been exalted as king. Such a heart of rebellion is weak in faith, trust, and strength, because the Lord does not dwell there.

A. W. Tozer, in his classic book The Pursuit of God, writes,

In the deep heart of the man (Adam) was a shrine where none but God was worthy to come. … Our woes began when God was forced out of His central shrine and things were allowed to enter. Within the human heart things have taken over. Men have now by nature no peace within their hearts, for God is crowned there no longer, but there in the moral dusk stubborn and aggressive usurpers fight among themselves for first place on the throne. … That place is His by every right in earth or heaven. While we take to ourselves the place that is His, the whole course of our life is out of joint. Nothing will or can restore order till our hearts make the great decision: God shall be exalted above … The whole course of life is upset by failure to put God where He belongs.¹⁰

God has every right to sit on the throne of your heart, but you must decide to put Him there. The great battle in life is not only to love God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength but also to keep Him on the throne of your heart, no matter what the world throws at you.

God is searching the hearts of men and women; He is looking for the heart devoted to Him above all else the world has to offer. He found such a man in David, whom God called a man after my own heart (Acts 13:22). As Christians, we need to be relentless in our pursuit of God’s heart and unite our hearts with His in a bond that no power in hell can break.

God is not concerned with what kind of car you drive, how much money you earn, or how many academic degrees you have. He is instead concerned with the much more important questions Where is your heart? and Does your heart belong to Me or to someone or something else? In 1 Samuel 16:7, we learn that the Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.

In this passage, the Hebrew word translated as look means to intently consider, observe, and give attention to. God gives the utmost attention to the condition of our hearts, hoping to find that rare gem of a heart that, like David’s, is in sync and in tune with His own. How touching is it that Scripture says God found David (Acts 13:22)? David lived, moved, and breathed in the will of God, determined to do whatever the Lord wanted him to do. How God’s heart must have thrilled when He found a human heart wholly devoted to Him!

God wants us, as Christians, to be committed to Him above all else. We should cry out Solomon’s passionate declaration I found the one my heart loves. I held him and would not let him go (Song of Solomon 3:4). Our hearts should cleave unto God, hold Him tightly, never let go, and never allow anything else to take His place all the days of our lives.

The eyes of the Lord still range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him (2 Chronicles 16:9). Where will He find your heart? What condition is your heart currently in? Will you allow God to mend, heal, and transform you, to give you a mighty heart like David’s?

God wants you to fully experience Him. He yearns for you to know Him. He wants to be your loving Father, your unfailing strength, your abounding joy, your fathomless love, and your limitless peace. He wants the deepest companionship and the most fulfilling fellowship with you in the innermost part of your heart. God wants you to know that when He sits on the throne of your heart, you have everything. You need nothing more.

Living in the Heart of God

A. W. Tozer has said, Because God made man in His image and redeemed him by the blood of the Lamb, the heart of God Himself is the true environment for the Christian.¹¹ The heart of God Himself is the true environment for every Christian. We should not only be diligently after God’s own heart, but it should be where we live and conduct our lives. God wants our heart to become His and His heart to become ours.

The heart of God is the sphere of our new life in Christ. A sphere is an atmosphere or element where all the necessary conditions of life exist for development and growth. Every plant and animal exists in a sphere of life with conditions necessary for its subsistence and development. The air is the element of the bird, while water is the element of the fish. The bird has a breathing apparatus designed for the air, and the fish has a breathing apparatus designed for life underwater. Both are wonderfully and uniquely made to live and flourish in their sphere of life. Likewise, God has wonderfully created and uniquely made you and me to live and flourish in the heart of God. Not only can we live life to a far greater quality and degree within this sphere, but it’s the only place where we can fulfill our true destiny as the children of God. Only there will our old passions, habits, bondages, and ways of life be displaced and fade away. In this new sphere we have the capacity and freedom to live fully and unabashedly for God. We should be like King Hezekiah, who cried out, GOD, please, I beg you: Remember how I’ve lived my life. I’ve lived faithfully in your presence, lived out of a heart that was totally yours (Isaiah 38:3, MSG).

This is where God wants you to live your life, for this what you were created for. This is the place where you can glorify Him. Everything about you was made for Him, and as a new Christian you were born again to live in His heart, by His heart, and for His heart. As Augustine so poetically wrote to God in his Confessions, You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you. The hearts of every man and women on the earth will find no rest, no fulfillment, and no homecoming until they find their way home to Him.

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the LORD, and will bring you back from captivity. (Jeremiah 29:11–14, NIV)

The loving and magnificent God of the universe has a purpose and a destiny for you. You are part of a plan that will rock Satan’s kingdom to the core and shake up the world for Jesus Christ. No one else has been given your unique mission as it has been ordained by God Almighty. Yet if you are ever to accomplish God’s purpose and destiny for your life, you must set your heart upon seeking Him and giving yourself to Him without reservation, hindrance, or obstruction. If you will live and move and breathe in God as your ultimate reality, your heart will become a sacred place where you rest in Him, enjoying His companionship and intimacy. And in this transformation chamber He will form your heart to be like His, where you cry His tears, feel His compassion, move in His love, and delight in His joy. Your heart will become absorbed in God’s heart, and you will hear His heartbeat and deeply experience His fathomless love and grace.

Living in the heart of God is the most exhilarating and adventurous place to live in the cosmos. For it’s there that you will you get to know the Creator of all things more intimately every day.

Friend, do you know, do you understand that God wants to be loved by you? God wants to be cherished. He wants to be wanted from the depth of your heart. John Eldredge, in his book Wild at Heart, beautifully shares this astounding truth:

I am convinced beyond a shadow of doubt of this: God wants to be loved. He wants to be a priority to someone. How could we have missed this? From cover to cover, from beginning to end, the cry of God’s heart is, Why won’t you choose Me? It is amazing to me how humble, how vulnerable God is on this point … He didn’t have to make us, but he wanted us. Though he knows the name of every star and his kingdom spans galaxies, God delights in being part of our lives … His heart is for relationship.¹²

John Bevere, in Drawing Near: A Life of Intimacy with God, says, There is a call—no, a cry—coming from the heart of God and with each passing day its intensity increases: ‘Why are you satisfied without My presence; why do you remain distant when you could have intimacy with Me?’¹³

Oh, how we have let so many other things take possession of the prize of our hearts! So often we devote our attention to something other than God, which throws the heart into captivity and chaos. Fear, greed, lust, pride, bitterness, and many other foolish things stand as blockades against God ascending to the throne of our hearts. We are masters at erecting barriers against God, posting Keep Out signs all around us even as our hearts are drowning in a sea of strife and confusion. All the while, God is patiently waiting, watching and hoping that you will tear down the barriers and allow Him to rescue you.

Do You Hear Him Calling?

God is passionate about His relationship with you (Exodus 34:14, NLT). God yearns for you. He desires you. Your heart is the most treasured possession in all the earth to God. He longs to write the true story of your heart in His heavenly language and by His heavenly touch:

God rewrote the text of my life when I opened the book of my heart to his eyes. (Psalm 18:24, MSG)

Acts 3:15 calls Jesus Christ the author of life. Have you opened the book of your heart to Him? Are you willing to let Him write the text of your life with breathtaking words and soul-stirring inspiration? Are you willing to let Him be the director, the producer, and the star of the story of your heart? Or is your heart distant from Him, wallowing in a sea of uncertainty and unbelief, earnestly waiting for a rescuer, a deliverer, and a restorer? Can’t you hear Him passionately calling, Bring your heart to me and I will restore it, repair it, and rebuild it to be my home where my presence is alive? No matter where your heart has wandered, no matter the depths to which you may have fallen, He can still rewrite the book of your heart into a beautiful history that glories God.

God is speaking to your heart right now. Do you hear Him? Are you listening? Is your heart like David, a man after God’s own heart, who listened and heard the call of God to his heart (Psalm 27:8)? Is your heart like the young Samuel who said to God Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening (1 Samuel 3:9)? Is your heart like Elijah who heard the still, soft whisper of God to his heart (1 Kings 19:12)?

God’s heart is always crying out Come, and He passionately desires that you respond, Lord, I am coming! God pursues your heart because it has enormous value to Him—it is worth more than all the riches in the world! All God ever wanted was your heart. He wants intimacy with you, to have the deepest level of communion with you. He wants nothing to be held back. God wants a relationship with you in which everything is shared and all barriers are broken down so that you can fully experience Him.

Within every heart is a deep yearning for God and all that He is. Humankind’s great search is to be reunited with our Creator, the only One worthy of our praise. Without God, our hearts remain forever empty, wandering aimlessly, as we search for something to satisfy our hunger. Meanwhile, Jesus Christ is at the door of our hearts and cries out, Here am I! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me (Revelation 3:20).

The Salt Covenant of the Heart

The sharing of a meal in Bible times indicated a strong bond of affection and companionship. There was a salt covenant with meals in the Bible in which a person would bind himself to another in utmost loyalty and truthfulness as salt was a symbol of enduring friendship, honesty, and close alliance. It is still common today for people from the Eastern culture to say, There is salt between us.

Jesus Christ wants to make a salt covenant with your heart, too. He wants to bind His heart together with yours heart in the closest intimacy of a friend, brother, companion, and provider. He pledges to enter a covenant of utmost loyalty with your heart where there will be an enduring bond of affection, honesty, and unbroken alliance. He wants your heart to be forever knit and linked with His, united and moving forward as one.

Jesus’ promise to come in and eat with those who will open the door to Him is given in the context of His warning against having a lukewarm heart for the Lord. This is the heart that recklessly and arrogantly proclaims it does not need a thing, even as it wallows in its own misery, selfishness, and spiritual blindness. Has your heart been lukewarm, indifferent to His presence and unresponsive to His voice? Is your heart so clogged with other things that Jesus has been crowded out of the picture? Has your heart succumbed to pride and selfishness? If so, Jesus is standing at the door of your heart right now with a firm but loving request: He wants the great treasure of your heart. He doesn’t want a token of it, a good portion of it, or even most of it. He wants all of it. Jesus Christ is longing for all of you. Do you hear him knocking? Do you hear Him gently calling your name?

Revelation 3:20 is a call of intimacy, friendship, and loyalty to our hearts and an invitation to enter into an unbreakable covenant of love. With such a wonderful promise of loyalty and intimacy, why do so many of us let our hearts be captivated by other things that only lead us astray? We chase the illusion. We blindly follow the lure of fascination in the world. At the first hint of success, we become puffed up with pride and begin pushing our own agendas. We let jealously, bitterness, envy and strife consume us. We get burdened down with trivial matters, and all the while Jesus stands just outside the door, offering intimacy, loyalty, and devotion with Almighty God. We should run to Him with all our might, for it is only in Him that we find the true meaning and purpose of life.

What Is the Heart?

You must understand this foundational, biblical truth: Your heart belongs to God. Your heart was formed and fashioned by God to be wholly devoted to Him and to be vibrantly alive with His presence. As Tozer has said, God gave you a harp and placed it in your own heart. … and He meant that harp to be tuned to Himself.¹⁴ The human heart is His, and only His, and it was never meant to give devotion or allegiance to anyone else. We must first understand this timeless truth before our spiritual eyes can be truly enlightened to the other great truths in God’s Word concerning the heart.

So what exactly is the heart that God pursues relentlessly and the devil tries to capture and keep in bondage? What does the word heart mean in Scripture? The heart is not the physical organ that pumps blood to the body, but rather, it’s the innermost part of a person’s being—the seat and center of a human life. Your heart is the essence of who you are. It is the control center for your will, emotions, intellect, desires, understanding, reasoning, reflection, and judgment. How you develop and grow mentally, emotionally, and spiritually is determined by the condition and makeup of your heart.

E. W. Bullinger, in A Critical Lexicon and Concordance to the English and Greek New Testament, defines the heart as the seat and center of man’s physical life in which the distinctive character of the human manifests itself.¹⁵ The heart is the center of everything that is manifested and comes forth in your life. One of the great principles of the heart is that whatever is in your heart is going to show up in your life, forming your character, your personality, your attitudes, your actions, and your words. The heart is the blueprint of what people see manifested in your life.

The New Bible Dictionary says the heart is essentially the whole man, with all his attributes, physical, intellectual and psychological … and the heart was conceived of as the governing center for all of these. It is the heart which makes the man … what he is, and governs all his actions.¹⁶ It is amazing to think that every word, every thought, every motive, every action comes from this place called the heart. Indeed, your heart is the source of everything you will ever do while you live upon the earth.

Emotions, feelings, and passions represent some of the deep inner movements of the heart that flow out into our lives and demonstrate the quality and composition of our hearts. Does love or strife flow out of your heart? Anger or forgiveness? Tenderness or bitterness? Humility or pride? Every moment you draw breath upon the earth, something is flowing out of your heart. What is coming out of your heart when you are with your family, at your job, with your friends, at your church, or when the sudden challenges of life are thrust upon you?

What flows out of our heart determines the quality of our life and character. It determines the manner and attitude with which you handle life’s major obstacles. It determines the richness of your relationships and the depths of your love. What flows out of the heart even determines the direction and course of your life.

Simply put, the heart is who you are and the essence of your being. As Oswald Chambers put it, The use of the Bible term ‘heart’ is best understood by simply saying ‘me.’ It is the central citadel of a man’s personality.¹⁷ This is why the heart is the key to your mental, social, and spiritual life, just as the physical heart is the key to your physical life. The heart is at the center of it all. And that is why the heart is at the center of all spiritual warfare, for it is the territory that both the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan desire.

John Eldredge writes in Waking the Dead: The Glory of a Heart Fully Alive:

This is the last thing the Enemy wants you to know. His plan from the beginning was to assault the heart … Make them so busy, they ignore the heart. Wound them so deeply, they don’t want a heart. Twist their theology, so they despise the heart. Take away their courage. Destroy their creativity. Make intimacy with God impossible for them. Of course your heart would be the object of a great and fierce battle. It is your most precious possession.¹⁸

Without your heart, you cannot have love. Without your heart, you cannot have faith. Without your heart, you cannot find the work you were meant to do. In other words, without your heart you cannot have life.

As Christians, we have neglected the importance of maintaining the heart with tireless vigilance. The heart is under assault daily, and we can never be too busy to tend to its care. We must be ever on guard, for the heart can turn or harden quickly, moving us off the path God has set for our lives.

The Wellspring of Your Life

When your heart is properly cared for under the gentle guidance of God, it should be a reflection of the glory of God. Your heart is meant to be full of His light, shattering the darkness of this world and brilliantly displaying the image of the Creator. Your heart was made by God to bear the image of His magnificence and characteristics such as love, mercy, goodness, tenderness, justice, strength, compassion, and peace.

The heart of every Christian is meant to be vibrantly alive as God’s life is poured into the words, motives, and actions of those who have passionately guarded their hearts for God. We must fight for every inch of our hearts against the relentless attack of the devil and his deceptive schemes and plans. We must not let him pollute our hearts with his contaminated words, thoughts, images, and purposes. The treasure of your heart is too valuable to be surrendered to the enemy.

Proverbs 4:23 (NEB) reads, Guard your heart more than any treasure, for it is the source of life. The New International Version says it like this: Above all else guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life. The heart is the wellspring, or fountain, of life. It’s the central reservoir from which all of a person’s words, actions, and motives flow. Charles Spurgeon, in his sermon titled The Great Reservoir," said:

You have seen the great reservoirs provided by our water companies, in which the water which is to supply hundreds of streets and thousands of houses is kept. Now, the heart is just the reservoir of man, and our life is allowed to flow in its proper season. That life may flow through different pipes—the mouth, the hand, the eye, but still all the issues of hand, of eye, of lip, derive their source from the great fountain and central reservoir, the heart; and hence there is no difficulty in showing the great necessity that exists for keeping this reservoir, the heart, in a proper state and condition, since otherwise that which flows through the pipe must be touted and corrupt … Mere moralists often forget the heart. … It is as if, when the reservoir was filled with poisonous or polluted fluid, some sage counselor should propose that all the piping had better be taken up, and fresh pipes laid down, so that water may be run through fresh channels; but who does not perceive that it would be all in vain, if the fountain-head were polluted, however good the channels. So in vain the rules by which men hope to fashion their lives; in vain the regimen by which we seek to constrain ourselves to the semblance of goodness. Unless the heart be right, the very best scheme of life shall fall to the ground, and fail to effect its design.¹⁹

The heart is the mighty reservoir that pumps its contents into our words, our thoughts, our motives, our emotions, our passions and our deeds. If Jesus Christ came and tested the quality of the water in the reservoir of your heart, what would He find? Is your reservoir polluted with the thoughts, ideas, and characteristics of this world? Or is it pure, lovely, and holy, reflecting the glory and heart of its Creator? Is your heart an environmental hazard that is contaminating your Christian walk and witness for Christ and polluting the quality of your intimacy with your heavenly Father? If your heart is polluted, then your life is going to be polluted.

What goes into determining the contents of the reservoir of your heart? Everything you think about, look at, read, listen to, been taught about, and have experienced. Ron Luce, in Guard Your Heart, explains it this way:

[The heart] is a sponge that soaks up every experience, every thought, and everything we have ever been taught. It absorbs everything and then, as we are squeezed, what comes out of that sponge directs our life. Think of all the experiences you have had—good ones, exciting ones, and bad ones that have hurt you. Think of all the things you have seen, read in textbooks, and learned from the school of life. Think of every emotion you have ever had and every dream you have ever dreamed. All of those things have been absorbed into your inner being just as a sponge would soak up water.²⁰

The contents of a contaminated heart can literally poison your words, emotions, attitude, and character, and destroy your life. You cannot sidestep and ignore the condition of your heart and think it won’t have any effect on your life.

The Hebrew word translated wellspring in Proverbs 4:23 means outgoing, to go forth, a starting point, a source, and an end point. In Old Testament days, this word was used to refer to the borders of a territory or the boundaries of a city. The heart determines the borders of your words and actions and the direction the territory of your life will extend. Out of the heart flows a map that illustrates every detail of the geography, frontiers and outer edges of your emotions, passions, behaviors, attitudes and desires that shapes your daily life. Like a surveyor that stakes out a territory, the heart determines the boundaries of your mental and emotional life and the sphere where you function and conduct your daily activities. These boundaries can be healthy or unhealthy, based on the condition of your heart.

Guarding the Promised Land

The first usage of this word wellspring in Scripture is found in the book of Numbers, in which God reveals to Moses the borders of the Promised Land that Israel is to go and possess: This will be your land, with its boundaries on every side (Numbers 34:12).

God has set the boundaries of a Promised Land for your life where you can accomplish your God-given destiny and purpose that God has lovingly designed for you. This Promised Land is a place where you can enjoy the blessings of God, the peace of God, the deliverance of God,